There are limited reports describing COVID-19 in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). This cross-sectional study examined children positive for COVID-19 admitted to 46 North American PICUs between March 14 and April 3, 2020, and with outcome follow-up through April 10, 2020.

During this timeframe, 48 children were admitted to 14 PICUs in the US and none in Canada. Most children (83%) had preexisting underlying medical conditions and 4.2% died. Additional characteristics of these children included:

• 25 (52%) were male
• The median (range) age was 13 (4.2-16.6) years
• 35 (73%) presented with respiratory symptoms and 18 (38%) required invasive ventilation
• 11 (23%) had failure of 2 or more organ systems
• Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was required for 1 patient (2%)
• Targeted therapies were used in 28 patients (61%), with hydroxychloroquine being the most commonly used agent either alone (11 patients) or in combination (10 patients)
• By April 10, 2020, 2 patients (4%) had died and 15 (31%) were still hospitalized, with 3 still requiring ventilatory support and 1 receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
• The median (range) PICU and hospital lengths of stay for those who had been discharged were 5 (3-9) days and 7 (4-13) days, respectively